The team of Research Development Officers (RDOs) work alongside the Costing Team within Research and Enterprise Services (RES) to support the preparation of research proposals including identifying funders, project costing, internal approvals and negotiating terms and conditions, and advising on non-technical aspects of proposal development. All faculties have dedicated named RDOs; see our contact details page for more information.

RDOs can provide the following support for your proposal:

• Advice on writing a good proposal;
• Consulting the bid library for a previous successful application;
• Specific advice and technical guidance on writing the:
• Case for support,
• Justification for resources,
• Pathways to impact/impact plans,
• Data management plan,
• Research data management,
• Assistance in obtaining generic University information to support proposals e.g. letters of support;
• external Project Partner Letters of Support (pdf)
• Funder terms and conditions, eligibility, compliance with call guidance;
• Liaison with collaborators, funders, University Contracts Team;
• Costings and approvals (with Costing Team);
• Facilitating the internal approval process, approval of subcontracts on research projects, the university equipment fund and other match funding;
• how to grant RSO view/edit access on main funder portals
• Making the final submission on behalf of the Institution; and
• Liaison with Senior Research Development Managers for large (typically over £1M) or strategic proposals.
• Help with identifying funding opportunities and setting up funding opportunity searches using RESEARCHconnect
• Training in research development including uptake of key University/Faculty/Department training and information events.
• Support for Early Career Researchers
• Advice on the classification of projects into research or consultancy (with the Contracts Team)

Please contact your named RDO for further information/support. If you are unsure who to contact about your proposal, please email rso-submissions@lancaster.ac.uk as soon as possible for assistance.

In addition, the NIHR Research Support Service can support research teams to develop and submit high-quality applied health and social care grant applications to NIHR and other national peer-reviewed funding programmes.